Charlevoix boys golf team embraces normalcy one year after crash

Drenth and one of the players, Joe Gaffney, were in the hospital for weeks — Drenth with significant injuries to his left leg and foot, among many other injuries, and Gaffney with extensive damage to his hip, among many other injuries. Both underwent multiple surgeries (and might still need more), followed by months of intense physical therapy. Another player, Maxwell Drenth, Doug's son, suffered a broken arm. And everyone in that van suffered emotionally, not knowing, at least in the immediate wake of the crash, if their coach would live or die, having taken the brunt of the collision after police believe he split-second positioned the van to try and shield his team.

"Emotionally, it was a roller coaster," team member Bryce Boss said.

"It's been a long year," Gaffney said.

"Awful, obviously," Maxwell Drenth said. "It's hard to remember. I just remember being in the hospital not knowing if my dad was going to be OK, or if he was ever going to be the same ever again."

Charlevoix boys golf team members Maxwell Drenth, left, Bryce Boss and Joe Gaffney.

Community support lives on

There are certain things the Charlevoix boys golf team is OK talking about, starting with their coach, a man they call "everything," "hero," "winner," "mentor" and "role model." It was brutal watching him go through what he went through, but inspiring watching him get to where he is today, a veteran runner — he also coaches cross country, and last fall saw that team win a state championship — walking again, albeit with a limp.

And they can't say enough about the rallying of the community, particularly the local golf and business community, but also strangers from all over the country, who came together to raise more than $200,000, much of that used to pay for some of the physical and neurological therapy expenses that weren't covered by insurance, such as travel and hotel costs. Drenth and Gaffney both spent weeks in Florida working alongside Mike Barwis, a former strength and conditioning coach with the Detroit Red Wings and Michigan football.

There were "Rayder Strong" signs all throughout Charlevoix — a nod to the high school's mascot — and, one year later, some of them are still standing.

"It meant a lot," team member Landen Whisler said. "The extent of it did catch me by surprise."

There were countless cards and messages and gift baskets and food deliveries — and, of course, there was all the money, collected in a drive led by board members of Charlevoix County Junior Golf, of which Drenth is the executive director, as well as the director of Charlevoix Municipal Golf Course.

Just about anything the community in northwest lower Michigan, just northeast of Traverse City, could do, it did — in the low moments and in the high moments.

There were few higher moments than Dec. 2, when Gaffney, who long had aspirations of playing college basketball, returned to the basketball court for his team's season opener. The team wore "Team Joe" warm-up shirts. Gaffney wore a "Team Doug" warm-up shirt. Gaffney, a guard, was in the starting lineup. Nobody knows just how many people were in the stands at Charlevoix High School that night, but the city has a population of just over 2,000, so that's probably a pretty good starting point. Gaffney hit two 3-pointers and had two rebounds in two quarters. His recovery was supposed to take 24 months, if he ever fully recovered at all.

"A year ago last night was terrible," Aaron Gaffney, Joe's dad, said earlier this week. "But there's been a lot of good that's come out of the last year."

Charlevoix boys golf team members from left: Bryce Boss, Maxwell Drenth, Landen Whisler and Joe Gaffney.

That's what the players want to talk about. They don't like talking about the actual crash, in part because some of them don't remember much, if anything, about it. Doug Drenth doesn't remember anything about it. And, in part, because they don't want to be defined by that. They've spent much of the last year just trying to be kids again, trying to get back to normal — or as normal or the new normal can be.

And, so, that's why when Drenth asked about returning to Arcadia Bluffs, it wasn't even a question.

"It felt important to go back," Aaron Gaffney said. "It felt like closing a circle."

Return to Arcadia Bluffs

The Charlevoix boys golf team gathered early Sunday morning. Several of the boys were pretty tired. Prom was the night before. The team loaded up onto the bus — that's the new mandated form of team transportation — and departed around 8:45 a.m., for the trek to Arcadia Bluffs, located two hours down the Lake Michigan coastline. In Traverse City, about halfway, the team stopped at Costco, players' insistence. They did it last year. They wanted to do it again this year. They ate cheap hot dogs and pizza and calzones, and they loaded up on snacks for the course and the night, like clementines, bananas, protein bars, Gatorades and, a favorite, Uncrustables.

They arrived at Arcadia Bluffs shortly before noon and hit the range ahead of their afternoon tee times. While on the tee, there was no announcement mentioning the significance of Charlevoix's return. The players didn't want that, Drenth told the tournament organizers, and they respected that.

"We wanted to move forward," Drenth said. "That's what we tried to do."

The first day, the boys played OK, in their estimation and Drenth's. Gaffney led the way with a 78, the team was just below the middle of the pack, not bad considering the competition was mostly bigger schools, and Charlevoix had barely played any rounds outdoors this season, because of the bad weather up north — bad weather that is normal up north this time of year and, as such, actually was welcomed by the players. Normal is good.

After the round, the boys had burgers and were shuttled back to their condo on site and stayed up late watching movies and playing video games and participating in one of their favorite pastimes — needling each other.

The next morning, they were shuttled to the course for breakfast and were on the range around 8 a.m., just before their tee time after 9. They didn't play as well. The conditions were brutal — so windy, it became difficult, if not impossible, to get balls to stop on the South Course greens. Tournament officials had to pause play, and eventually they had to cut short the tournament. Charlevoix finished, though. Boss led the way with an 81.

Drenth, after getting back home Monday night, wasn't exactly sure what his team shot in the end. It was something in the high 330s on Day 1, and in the high 340s on Day 2. It wasn't important.

"It's good," said Joe Gaffney, "to be back to normal."

Fellow competitors at the tournament were respectful of Charlevoix, and if they brought up the crash to any of his players, Drenth didn't hear about it.

Charlevoix boys golf team coach Doug Drenth speaks to golfers.

Four of this year's team members were in last year's crash: Gaffney, 18; Boss, 17; Drenth, 17; and Whisler, 16. The other three players involved in the crash have gone on to college. Two of them, Brady Warchol, who's at Western Michigan (and who also suffered injuries in the crash that required PT in Florida), and Emmett Bergmann, who's at Michigan, came to watch the team play at Arcadia Bluffs on Sunday, walking all 18 holes, as did both boys' parents. The seventh player who was in the crash, Jackson Crouse, had exams.

After Round 2 on Monday, the boys ate hot dogs at the course before heading back to Charlevoix on the bus — exactly one year after the crash. For whatever reason, the route home didn't take them by the site of the crash, though, honestly, they might not have noticed if it did. The boys and their coach were too consumed with being together and participating in their post-tournament team ritual of going around, one by one, and each saying two things that went well and two things that need improvement. By 9 p.m. Monday, the team was home, ready for whatever the next day and the next tournament bring — especially, of course, if it's normal.

"I think they're ready to move on with life as much as possible. It will always be something that will unify them the rest of their lives. They're gonna have experienced that trauma," said Drenth, 62, a lifelong Charlevoix resident. "I also feel like they all said, 'OK, let's go forward and hope and see what we do.' That's what they want.

"Everyone has those anniversaries in life ... this has become one of those things for me, it's just changed me forever," Drenth added. "To be quite honest ... I do think about it, I do sometimes dwell on what was, and sometimes when I'm around young adults, it helps me focus on hope and the future.

"I'm grateful for that."

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Charlevoix golf team returns to Arcadia Bluffs one year after crash